


Deeper

by bananasandroses (achuislemochroi)



Series: Whofic [24]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: 2X00 (The Christmas Invasion), 2X01 (New Earth), Character Study, F/M, Interstitial, Introspection, Romance, Tenth Doctor Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-08-23
Updated: 2009-08-23
Packaged: 2018-01-24 06:00:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1594187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/achuislemochroi/pseuds/bananasandroses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He’s a new man, but that isn’t all that’s changed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Deeper

He’s improved his kissing technique, given all the practise he’s been getting over the past few weeks, and so the long, slow kiss against the side of the TARDIS is nothing out of the ordinary for him any more. But as the two of them start to map the contours of each other’s mouths with their tongues something sparks between them, and he finds himself crushing her to him and letting his body show her that he is interested in far more than just her friendship.

The nature of the kiss changes, then, into something anything but gentle – lips, teeth, tongues all involved as they battle each other desperately for control – and his hands start wandering in a search for skin. Just as his fingers find the edge of her top and move beneath it he hears something in the background that suggests that someone – _Mickey, maybe? Please let it not be Jackie_ – has seen them. He doesn’t particularly care, in any event, and when his fingers touch Rose’s skin his mind empties of anything but her.

Soon after this he takes her for the first trip in the TARDIS since he’d crash-landed them just before Christmas; he wants time alone with her, away from Mickey and Jackie. Time in which they can find out whether they travel well together – and for him to fix it if they don’t, because he’s decided by that stage that he isn’t going to leave her behind – and in which they can explore each other, in the new and strange relationship that is developing between them.

One of their first stops is Barcelona. Difficult for both of them, for different reasons, it is also the fulfilment of a promise made just before he’d changed; he wants to be seen by Rose as a man who keeps his promises. And although he knows that Rose knows that he is still the same man beneath as he was when he had blue eyes and wore a leather jacket as a shield against the world, sometimes she still acts strangely around him; almost as if she is grieving somebody – him? – who is still with her. With that shadow hanging over them, the first few hours on the planet aren’t a particularly pleasant experience for either of them. But he perseveres, and by the time they’ve spent a good few days there Rose’s strange behaviour was almost a memory; he hopes it won’t come back.

Instead of dwelling on things that can’t be changed, Rose appears – to him, at least – to at last be spending her time in much more pleasant ways; seeing her relaxed and having fun makes him happy and means for a few minutes he can stop worrying about her. By the time he’s shown her everything – the obligatory dogs with no noses included – she seems calm and happy again, at least to him, and that’s good enough to be going on with.

Barcelona is safer and calmer than the vast majority of the places in which they’ve ended up, and he feels guilty enough about that for his next idea to be a whistle-stop tour of all the more obviously impressive parts of the universe. He’s trying to impress her, he knows, in ways even his previous self had never done; knew that because he was falling for her far more quickly and deeply than could ever be considered wise it’s quite possible that he’s trying _too_ hard.

Once he realises what he’s left himself open to in falling for her so easily, he briefly considers trying to pull back, trying to stop himself from becoming inextricably attached. He makes a half-hearted effort at it but he can see that it’s hurting Rose and therefore he changes his mind shortly afterwards and forces himself to accept reality.

He’s in love with her already; the damage, such as it is, is done.


End file.
